This year's railway budget seems to be politically driven once again keeping in mind the five states that go to the polls this year. The only exception to this rule is the minister's home state of Bihar which got as many as fourteen of the 55 new trains announced for this fiscal!
Is he expressing his thanks to the biharis for shunting him out of power in the state? Does Bihar really require that much capacity at this time? Or are so many trains required to keep the thieves and bandits in his home-state happy?
And what is with the naming of the proposed eastern and western freight corridors that are mainly relegated to the northern sectors? Is the disconnect between the names and the actual proposed locations for these projects deliberate? I would expect any eastern corridor to run through the eastern half of the country, not across the northern half!! Same argument goes for the Western corridor.
The "Western" corridor is proposed to run from Bombay to the UP heartland and the Eastern corridor is proposed to run from Bihar to Punjab. Why did the "Eastern" corridor have to stop in Bihar? Should it not run into West Bengal at the least and maybe onward into Assam and the other north eastern states thorugh feedrer lines? Don't they desreve to do freight? And what about the rest of the country? Why these additional lines in an area that already has enough lines? If at all there are areas that need additional lines those lie right in the center of India and in the north east states. A line connecting the western and eastern coasts of India may be more beneficial.
What about the south states? The only southern state that got anything significant is Tamil Nadu. Maybe they have an election coming up...
End of rant!!
Friday, February 24, 2006
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